Stormborn Sorceress: A Fantasy Isekai LitRPG Adventure

Cass and Pellen settled on either side of the side room’s door, their fire set between them in front of the door, recovering their Focus and Health under the benefits of Beacon of Hearth and Home.

“So, why do you suppose the boxes unlock for you?” Pellen asked.

Cass shrugged. “You’re sure they’re locked?”

Pellen nodded. “I would have believed if one or two hadn’t been, by complete chance. But for 12 in a row? That seems unlikely.”

“Maybe the whole room was unlocked?” Cass suggested.

Pellen hummed an entirely unconvinced noise.

Cass didn’t really believe it either. But she didn’t have any new theories. If anything, she was even more confused. The doors were locked for her, but the treasure was hers for the taking? How did that make sense?

Maybe it had something to do with the fact she’d been summoned to this world? Or that she was a slyphid? Otherwise, she was an ordinary person, wasn’t she? She certainly had no connection to ancient catacombs or storehouses. She’d only been here like a month, after all.

The only other option was this was somehow Salos’s fault. He was old enough and had some history with the previous owners of the catacombs, but enough that they’d be locking the doors on him but leaving the treasure unlocked? It was possible, she supposed. But even if it was related to Salos, why would it affect her like this?

Speaking of Salos, she could still feel Salos far above her. He was anxious about something. Was it just that he was separated from her or had they run into some trouble?

She hoped things were going well for them. He could make things more complicated than he had to.

The door beside her swung open. Her fire sputtered out as a chilling wind blew through the door.

Cass and Pellen jumped to their feet.

A tall, bipedal creature strode in between them and the door slammed shut behind it, a purple sigil glowing on the door.

Soulbound Wolf

Lvl 25

[The primary foot soldier of the Vaisom Catacombs. They are powerful soldiers possessing a wide variety of blade skills and a thirst for the blood of intruders. They are known to show up shortly after other defenses of the Catacombs have been injured or destroyed.]

It looked more like a man in a wolf mask than an animal, though like the other creatures of the catacombs, its flesh was the glowing green ectoplasm. Its body was covered in shining metal plates, like full plate armor, though its steps into the room seemed unimpeded by the weight or bulk. Its head was that of a wolf mask, snarling like the one Cass had seen above.

It drew a sword from its side, turning and slashing at Pellen before either of them had time to react.

Pellen screamed, leaning away from the creature, but too late. Blood arched through the air behind the sword. Pellen fell backward, body rag dolling over the stone floor.

Cass launched herself forward, fueled by a fury in her chest and guided by Staff Mastery’s expertise. Strike the back of the head, it cried. Make it pay for violating her camp.

The staff sunk into the thing’s flesh. Its head knocked forward, its face crunching into its chest.

See that? That’s what intruders got!

Except, the thing didn’t fall down like it should have. It turned, its sword hanging at its side, blood dripping from the tip, the crimson sinister in the purple lights.

Its head rose back up, its snarling mask unaffected, its eyes glistening with malice Cass had not felt since her first moments in this world.

Cass was alone in a strange glowing forest again. The sky was overcast. The beast before her was five times her level, five times as powerful. Her feet were lead. Her blood was ice. The wolf before her was the Kilton Hound, back to slay her where she stood.

And it would relish the chance.

Her heart thumped in her chest.

She was going to die. The hound ripped her to pieces in her imagination. Its jaws tore her limbs from her body. Blood dripped from its snarling maw. Her entrails trailed behind her corpse.

And Pellen would be next. Accosted and unable to defend themself. A scared spell shot at its snout as it lunged. Blood exploded from their neck as jaws sank into flesh.

Cass’s chest burned at the thought. Hot. Angry.

How dare it walk into her camp and hurt her? Hurt her guest?

How dare it inflict this Fear on her?

The illusion snapped.

Status Condition (Tormented Dream) Broken

She wasn’t in the Uvana Valley. She was not level one. She wasn’t so powerless as to let this beast kill her in her own camp!

Wind Blade flared to life on her staff. Mana Blade wreathed it thick enough she could see its energy with her natural sight. Staff Mastery slashed her blade down across the beast’s chest, leaving an oozing green gash in its silver armor.

It howled and lunged for Cass.

She blocked, her staff effortlessly catching its sword and throwing it back.

It swung again, this time the bloody blade leaving a trail of light in its wake.

Dodge pulled her right, ducking under the rising sword. But she was too close to use her staff effectively, her skills warned. Luckily, her staff wasn’t her only weapon.

Her right hand released her staff, curling into a claw. Elemental Manipulation summoned a ball of fire before it and she jammed it into the monster’s chest.

The wolf howled, swinging down again.

Dodge pulled Cass back, the colors of her world inverting momentarily as the sword sliced through her momentarily immaterial shoulder.

The hit to her Stamina from using the Liminal Dodge felt like her chest had been kicked in. She didn’t need to breathe, but she desperately tried to catch her breath all the same, Dodging to the left as another sword strike sought to impale her.

A chant echoed through the room, ending as abruptly as it began, with the wolf locking up in place, a red glow outlining its body.

Cass didn’t wait for Pellen’s explanation. She drove her staff forward, Wind Blade spearing through the torn chest plates.

The crimson faded and the wolf howled, jerking to the side and knocking Cass’s grip on her staff loose.

Still impaled, the wolf lunged for the unarmed Cass.

Bad! Very bad!

Cass scrambled out of the way, her feet suddenly less sure with no staff in her hands. What was she supposed to do without her weapon? She needed it for both her blade skills. Elemental Manipulation wasn’t much of an attack without the guidance of her staff.

She ducked under another sword sweep, Dodge firing on all cylinders to make up for the lack of Staff Mastery’s help.

How many more could she dodge before her Stamina gave out?

Stamina: 32/108

Not that many. She couldn’t run that much longer. They were going to die here. Why was this happening? Where had this monster come from? Would this have happened if—

She cut off that line of thought. Alacrity enhanced speed of thought or not, she didn’t have the time for self pity. She had enough presence of mind to realize she was panicking.

She darted away from another attack and took stock of everything:

Stamina: 29/108

Focus: 277/369

Health: 77/88

Equipment:

- staff: impaled on enemy

- dagger: in Bag

- light armor: undamaged

- Bag: on hip, full of useful things

Potentially Relevant Skills:

- Confounding Mists: potentially useful to buy her a minute to regroup?

- Wind Step: could she escape with it?

- Staff Mastery: required a staff to activate. Was there any method of acquiring a staff?

- Stealth: if perception of her could be broken, perhaps she could escape with it?

- Dodge: doing its best

- Stormstride Sprint: could she run away faster than it could chase her?

- Elemental Manipulation: minimal damage potential without a weapon

- Wind Blade: unusable without a weapon.

- Mana Blade: unusable without a blade.

- Mana Sense: was there anything else she could learn about her enemy with this?

- Beacon of Hearth and Home: flaring at full power for some reason?

Concepts:

- Wind: Empowering her Dexterity. Likely contributing to why she wasn’t bleeding out from a sword strike yet.

- Hearth: Able to trade Health for more Stamina, increasingly likely this would be needed.

- Liminal: Who knew? Not Cass.

A fraction of a second had passed, but she was going to need much more to figure this out.

Confounding Mists billowed around her and she activated Stealth as she slunk deeper into them. The wolf howled again, lunging after her but find only Aether and air where it had last seen her. Pellen shouted in alarm too, still on the ground where they’d fallen. Cass ignored them for a moment, stalking out of range of the Soulbound Wolf’s sword.

She had a few more second now.

What did she do next?

The easiest answer was she should run. Salos would approve. Cass had claimed some treasure but had safely removed herself from danger when things proved more than she could handle. It was cold. It was practical. It was reasonable.

Except, every method of running left Pellen behind to their fate. A gruesome, bloody fate.

Unacceptable, she decided, the decision echoing in her heart with all her Resolve.

But that meant keeping up the fight. For the moment, the wolf was contained within her mists. Would it stay that way, or would it grow wise and step out again? Could it?

Fighting it within her misty domain would give her the edge, no question. But that implied she had something to fight with. Could she pull her staff out while surround in mist?

Worth a shot, she supposed.

She Stealthed up to the creature, her hands clenched around the shaft of her staff and she pulled. The Wolf lunged forward with the effort, its sword leading the charge.

Cass dropped her staff and Dodged out of the way, cursing under her breath. The wolf was smart enough to realize she would return for her staff and to use that action to target her despite being unable to find her on its own.

That meant staff was out of the question, which meant no Staff Mastery.

But her staff wasn’t her only weapon, was it?

She drew her dagger from her Bag.

It was a curving blade, a couple of inches longer than Cass’s favorite kitchen knife at home. The metal was as dark as the shadows beyond the light of the scones. Black leather wrapped the handle, ending in a pommel made of the same dark metal.

Erizen’s Blade

[Class: Dagger (Bladed)

The dagger made for Erizen, for his acceptance into the Arcanum Custodia. May he stand at his mistress’s side, ever bolder.

Reduced perception of blade.

Minor reduced perception of wielder.]

It had been Salos’s reward for defeating the Epherwing back in Uvana.

It was heavy and foreign in her hands. Could she use this? She didn’t have a dagger mastery skill. She didn’t know what it would take to gain one.

She didn’t know if she really wanted to gain one.

Her hand tightened around the blade. Now wasn’t the moment to be worried about skills. Now was for surviving.

All she had to do was stab it and that would be enough. Right?

She padded toward it, creeping up on its back. She called Mana Blade to her dagger’s edge. A step behind the man shaped wolf, she stabbed. The blade sunk in between the shoulder blades, Mana Blade slicing through its armor like it wasn’t even there.

It howled.

She pulled her dagger back, the wound dripping with green ooze.

The wolf whirled around, somehow, some way, still alive. Still clawing at her.

Her colors inverted as Dodge phased her wrist out of the way of the wolf’s sword.

Her body was heavy as she stumbled back, her legs made of lead.

Stamina: 4/108

That would not work. She needed more.

The fire in her chest leapt to life, burning with furious intent.

Stamina: 19/108

Focus: 222/369

Health: 47/88

It still wasn’t enough, but she couldn’t burn more right now. And the fire in her chest would feed her Stamina more over time if she was just patient. If she could just be patient. If there was time to be patient.

Her limbs were still heavy, but she could still move. She just needed to properly Dodge completely out of the way of the next attacks.

Or kill that thing with her next attack.

Why wasn’t it dead? She’d caved in its head, spear it through the chest, run her blade through its spine. It couldn’t be indestructible. She’d seen the mask of a dead one on the first floor.

Unless they shed their masks like snakes shed their skin?

No. Not useful. They had to be mortal; they had to be killable. The alternative was she died here attempting an impossible task.

But how did she kill it?

Was there a secret weak point that she needed to hit to disable it?

Atmospheric Sense didn’t have any clues. It recognized it was alive in the mists, but it didn’t breathe like a truly living thing.

Through the mist, she couldn’t see it with any of her other senses. Which meant she had to keep guessing at where she should strike next or she needed to risk something.

She pushed Mana Sense to the max anyway, hoping she’d spot something through the mists to target. Everything was hazy through the Aether mists. The air itself, or perhaps the Aether, glowed like background radiation. It was like looking at it through a heavy veil. She could tell it was there, and that it was powerful. But Cass couldn’t pinpoint any particular concentrations in its body like this.

She would need to drop Confounding Mists if she wanted to check properly. And if she did that, who knew how quickly that thing would strike?

But the other option was to stab blindly again and risk the counter attack.

There was no safe option.

Cass flared Stealth as much as she could make it work and padded around to its back again. With a resigned breath, she recalled the Confounding Mists.

The wolf stiffened as the world came into clarity around it. A glow coalesced in its chest, a hand above Cass’s staff.

Cass Sprinted forward. Wind Blade swirled to life on her dagger, glowing with Mana Blade. Cass stabbed, throwing the Mana Wind Blade into the back of its chest.

The wolf turned, its sharp senses detecting Cass through Stealth. Cass’s attack went wide.

Cass couldn’t stop her momentum.

The wolf lunged, its sword glistening as it approached.

She swung her dagger through the air, her hand moving painfully slowly compared to the speed the wolf’s sword approached. The Wind Blade on her dagger was not forming fast enough. Not flying away from her fast enough.

Cass pivoted, pulling at Wind Step, but even that was too slow. She couldn’t phase into the wind fast enough to avoid the coming impaling.

Pellen’s Chant echoed through the air. Cass found herself a foot to the right. The wolf’s sword sailed through the empty space where Cass had been a moment before.

Cass spun on the wolf. It was committed to the lunge. It couldn’t get out of the way. Erizen’s Blade, wreathed in wind and mana, sunk into the core of energy at the wolf’s center.

Like air rushing out of a balloon, the wolf’s armor collapsed in front of Cass.

Finally, it was dead.

They had survived.